


Acяσѕѕ тнє Sтαяѕ, I Ƒιηɗ Ƴσυ Agαιη {Ƥяєνιєω Sєяιєѕ}

by Raven (SplinteredRaven)



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Bite me Ciro, One-shot esque, Other, Preview, Splinter Space Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-02-07 08:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12837549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SplinteredRaven/pseuds/Raven
Summary: Because if broken shards of a crystal wielded by a powerful novice can collect the scattered consciousness of Donatello and make him whole, then there is no reason a whole crystal wielded by ancient beings with eons of experience cannot collect Splinter's spirit from light-years away & regenerate him a new body.For anyone invested in Splinter's post S4 Odyssey through space. Chapter previews will not necessarily be in story order.





	1. Bυяdεиεd Oиε

You don’t know how to apologize to him.

Bright-eyed and eager, he gives you a tour of the ship. The bedrooms, the halls, the passageways to the engine room, weapon storage, a strange but convenient device that creates food from the mere energy of your thoughts, and the simulation room they have been using for training all these months away.

All throughout- though you have been paying attention- a part of your mind is on earth.

The dojo, where you assigned him the responsibility of raising his brothers.

The city street, where you told him to act from his heart, only to dismiss the convictions your son’s heart led him to while stubbornly acting from your own.

Running away.

Blue eyes flash with pride as he finishes explaining how the simulations are created, changing to quick concern as you respond to his cue to move on a bit too late. And you realize now- or rather, you acknowledge it- that your heart had been misguided by fear. By a conviction of finality.

Months of visions, night terrors… the constant oppressive instinct that any moment could be your last… they had worn you down. You hadn’t been strong enough to resist, you became impressionable, your mind made malleable to fear.

And like a fool, you created a self-fulfilling prophecy. And the young man before you paid the price for that. They all did.

You are on the observation deck. Your oldest is explaining to you the different star systems you have passed and the ones yet to come on the ship’s current course. There are stars in his eyes, both from passion and the reflective tint of the glass.

This is your son.

The one you hurt.

The one you so hastily placed too much on his young shoulders.

And even if you could find the words, there is not a way for you to give him the apology he and your other children so deserve.

Because the Leonardo you spoke with is back on earth, and the one standing before you does not know what you have done.


	2. Iηтσ тнє Hєανєηѕ

As Splinter ascends, thinking he will never see his children again except from possibly the expanse of the heavens, he finds that his spirit is not heading out of the world, but across it; Tugged incessantly by some outside force, he senses that there is a consciousness.. no, a collection of wills, taking his spirit in their grasp and refusing to let go. None of which he recognizes.

 

Instead of the void of the higher planes, he catches glimpses of constellations and planets he suddenly remembers being described to him before… when his sons had travelled the galaxy. He thinks he may be traveling at light speed, but he’s unsure how to prove that instinct.

There is a stop. He feels… heavier, but also lighter… more whole… there is a coldness in the air… the intermingled sounds of voices crying and yelling reaches him first.

He knows those voices. April. Michelangelo. Raphael.

His feet touch the ground, and he feels himself descend, although gravity feels off.

He opens his eyes, and then he sees.

Shock. That is the shared expression among the faces of his students, his children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original idea was to have Splinter reunite with his children on the Aeon's home planet immediately. That may very well change, since the majority of the story he ends up on a solo- Odyssey. But I still wanted to share it :)


	3. Dust to Dust Pt. I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the official first chapter of Across the Stars. It will be broken into two parts.

_Dust to Dust Pt. I_

_for out of it was thou taken: for **dust**_ _thou art, and unto **dust**_ _shalt thou return._

_New York City, Earth, sunrise_

There was a cruel poetry to how similar it was to the day he had first held the hand of his little girl. A pair of strong, tiny fingers taking hold of his hand. Their small, slender size belying the true strength of their grip. He had laughed, then, when little Miwa didn’t want to let go.

Now, as he is pulled by forces beyond his control, Splinter can only offer a soft, apologetic smile as the palm, fingers, and then fingertips of his now-grown daughter slip from his own. After all these years, much like their _“hello”_ , in the _“goodbye”_ between father  & daughter she is still grasping, still reaching to pull him back.  

He wishes that she could.

The rest of his children, besides Leonardo who is putting an arm around her, are huddled together a few feet away. Most are offering him their version of a reassuring smile, as if trying to convey a message of “ _We’re fine. I’m fine. We’ll be okay, don’t worry_!” Raphael turns to hide tears. Michelangelo waves, offering a smile that feels like a mirror to Splinter’s own; it acknowledges the finality of their family gathering.

As his body and line of sight rise higher and higher, Splinter’s senses start to fade, then disappear, as he shifts into nothing; incorporeal. But until the moment his sight fades, Splinter never looks away from his children. Not until he knows the last of his form has faded into nothingness.

Alone and incorporeal now, Splinter expects his individual consciousness to soon follow suit, and he braces for the inevitable dissembling.

He waits, as he gently rises towards the heavens, to no longer be aware of his surroundings. To become one with the collective consciousness of the universe.

 _“Pulvis et umbra sumus. We are but dust and shadow…”_ he muses to himself.  

Thoughts of his each son rise to meet him. Followed shortly by April. Casey. Miwa. They are strong. Brave. Young men & women that any teacher, any father, would be proud of.

They are strong. Brave. More than he ever was. More than he will ever have the chance to be.

Instead of comfort, each memory of the love and trust they held for him remind Splinter just how much he let them down. Selfish as it is, he pushes their faces from his mind, wanting nothing more than to forget just how he has failed. As a ninja, for failing to sense his enemy's strike. As a sensei, for failing to teach them all that he knew. As a father, for failing to protect them.

Perhaps the endless waiting and the fact he has yet to sense any other being besides himself is karma's way of exacting justice. He could not be trusted with the lives of others. Isolation was what he had earned.

Even Shen had not been there, when he first awoke from dying. Time relegated to wandering as a shade he had spent searching for her, when he wasn’t trying to manage a visit to his children. Yet searching yielded no result, so he had tried calling for her. Then, when it was clear that no response would be forthcoming, he’d waited; much like he was doing now. As it turned out, the teachings his father had given advising the afterlife was comprised of many layers was true. No, whatever spiritual planes he had dwelled in, Tang Shen was not within them. She was beyond, in a place Splinter instinctively felt he would follow to.

“ _It has been nearly two decades, Shen._ ” He sent that thought toward her, suddenly feeling the pace of his ascent though the inky blackness of the void quicken. _“Please, guide me home. Let me come to wherever it is that you are. I want to see you!”_

He sees nothing, but he can practically hear the laugh in her smile. Feel the gentle grazing of her hand upon his face... unless he is anticipating it? No it has to be her. At last. At last! At last!!

_“And we… would like to see you.”_

There is a momentary halt; as if his soul is pausing right at the border between heaven and earth. It is long enough for Splinter to discern that the melody of voice he just heard is not his wife, for it is far too detached; unwarm. Confusion and anxiety take hold, and before his demand to know who spoke can fully form, Splinter finds himself incessantly yanked across the heavens. Bursts of light resembling stars break into his vision, blurring into thinner and thinner lines the more he accelerates, twisting and stretching ahead of him, tube-like in the path of their trajectory.

_"Where am I going? What is happening right now?!"_

This is not what it had been like before. This is not what he had experienced before when everything was **pain** , everything **hurt**... until it didn't. Now? it is almost as if… as if he is being sucked through a giant bendy straw, much like the ones Michelangelo once took every opportunity to slurp from in glee! The comparison is ludicrous, albeit apt.

Despite having a vague awareness of the situation at hand, it is beyond Splinter's powers of comprehension whether he is being torn apart or being put back together.

He has no clue if he is getting closer or farther away from his beloved, and everyone else who went before him.

_Is this what reincarnation felt like? Was he headed back towards earth, as some other form of life?_

After an eternity, there is a stop, and his flight at what he swore was light speed ends as quickly as it began. He is still suspended mid-air, as far as he can tell.

 _"It is a good thing that I no longer possess a stomach. It would have lurched straight into my throat!"_ he groused.

And yet, for some reason, he felt like it had. And that feeling... was shortly accompanied by an intense nausea. It quickly passes.

Because (as he realized at a later time) he has blacked out.

* * *

 

_Unknown place, unknown time_

Upon regaining consciousness, Splinter finds he does not hurt, exactly.

It is more a feeling of constant, steady pressure on his every limb. His eyelids are closed, but they feel heavy. More than they ever had even on his most endless nights without sleep.

He feels… heavier, but also lighter... more **whole**.

_“Breathe. Just breathe Yoshi, and you can figure this out.”_

As he does, Splinter feels his body rise and fall with each steady stream of air. For a few minutes, he does nothing more than that, feeling the life-giving energy flow within every limb.

As his whiskers and fur ruffle from a gust of wind that causes his tail to twitch, Splinter suddenly is hit with two revelations simultaneously.

  * He is still a rat.
  * He is breathing. And breathing meant he was _alive._



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, & feel free to comment and/or leave feedback!
> 
> Extra thanks to those of you who encouraged me, yelled in excitement with me, and then patiently waited for me to finally post an update. I hope by the end you feel it was worth the wait!
> 
> Honestly, the reason I waited this long was because I wanted the first chapter of this saga-in-progress to be as poignant as possible. I decided the best way was to have it go live on the 1 year anniversary of Requiem airing in the US.
> 
> TMNT ending on the note of "vengeance pays out in the end", both for Shredder's victory & clan Hamato's retaliation, did not sit well with me. A year later, it still feels dishonest to the spirit 2012 fostered for the grand majority of its run. "Vengeance leads to more pain, suffering, and loss", "Allow room for second chances", "Do not lose hope."
> 
> Despite being given more than his fair share, I don't want Splinter's final association to be with despair. Or death. Or failure. Or any other negative associations Requiem fostered. 12/19 is not just the day Splinter lost, or the day he lived out a self-fulfilling prophecy by dying at Shredder's hand. Because that's not the way his life story ends. It's now a day he gets a second chance. & I am more than glad to tell it.
> 
> As cheesy as it sounds... for anyone else who had their heart broken by Requiem, I want you to know that Splinter's advice of "never lose hope", "trust your instincts" & "there is always something you can do" is how this story even came to life. He inspired me then, & I hope I write him well enough that he continues to inspire all of you.
> 
> -raven

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a small piece of a larger work to come. Feedback appreciated!


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